Saturday 17 January 2026

Play will commence at 9:30 and finish by 16:30
Prize giving and photos 16:30 to 17:00

Fee: £5 for each entrant
Payment & completed forms to be received by Saturday 10 January 2026. Completed entry form to be handed to Roger Newton  or emailed to tauntonchessclub@gmail.com 

Late entries or entries on the day will NOT be accepted

Payment can be made by electronic bank transfer or cash.
Name: Taunton Chess Club
Sort Code: 30-90-90
Account Number: 44813260
Please use your full name + RAPID as a reference on the payment.

There will be 8 rounds using ratings as at 1 Jan 2026. Each player has 15 mins on the clock, no increments. Please note that this tournament is not eligible for ECF grading and games are therefore unrated

Cash Prizes: Maximum of one prize per person

1st Overall £40; 2nd Overall £20;
1st Under 1500 £25; 2nd Under 1500 £15;
1st Junior, Under 16’s £20
1st Senior over 65 £20

Bring your own packed lunch – Hot drinks available – Tesco Express 50m away

Somerset Knockout Competition

The gradings suggested that Taunton would win 2 ½ to 1 ½ but you will have to read on to discover the actual result.

Ioannis on Board 1 unexpectedly lost following a slight miscalculation (blunder?), whilst Richard on Board 2 duly won against his lower graded opponent. Even though you outrank your opponent you still have to play well to win. Well done, Richard.

On Board 4 Mike Ward was easily beaten by an opponent who outgraded him quite significantly so no real shame in losing that one Mike.

On Board 3, Phil who was playing with the Black pieces made a poor start but recovered to finish in an end game with a Rook and Bishop versus White’s Rook.

At one point there seemed to be loads of pawns but the next time I looked they had all gone. I thought this was going to be a draw and we would lose but he played very well and his opponent resigned before an inevitable mate.

2-2 was the final result. Well done everyone. It is great to be back playing OTB matches against other clubs.

And good luck to our Bishops who visit Weston Super Mare on Thursday.

Beware decommissioned oil rigs!

BISHOPS TEAM FIXTURES:

(Captain – David Graham)

KNIGHTS TEAM FIXTURES:

(Captain – Chris Greenaway)

Division Three – Taunton Knights – Chris Greenaway

It was really encouraging to see so many players even if not all were fully enjoying the time limit of 15 minutes for each player.  There was plenty of room for blunders and missed opportunities with some players excelling.

Make sure you come to the club on Tuesday 10th May for the deciding 4 rounds.
There will be prizes!

A big thank you to Chris Greenaway for organising the tournament.

When we visited Sedgemoor last, we suffered an ignominious defeat 5 1/2 to 1/2.

When they came to us on the 5th April we beat them 5-0. Perhaps it was our posh wooden match sets that unnerved them, or maybe we just played better.

Especially well done to Louis Wainwright representing Taunton for the first time. A solid victory over Sedgemoor’s Ryan.

The result at Wellington was not as good. We lost 1 1/2 to 2 1/2 ; that is 1 loss and 3 draws.

Perhaps in current times though, results are less important than the opportunity to play over the board chess against unknown opponents.

Anyway thanks to all who took part. Niall, Ioannis, Chris, Stan, Richard, Arnold, Phil, Frey and Louis.

1.d4 d5 2.Bf4 Nf6 3.e3 Bf5 4.Nf3 e6 5.Nbd2 Bd6 6.Bg3 O-O 7.Nb3 Ne4 8.Bxd6 Qxd6
9.Be2 Nd7 10.O-O c5 11.Nh4 Bg6 12.c3 c4 13.Nd2 Ndf6 14.f4 b5 15.Bf3 Nxd2 16.
Qxd2 Bd3 17.Rf2 Ne4 18.Bxe4 dxe4 19.g3 f5 20.Qd1 g6 21.Rg2 b4 22.Qd2 a5 23.g4
bxc3 24.bxc3 Qa3 25.gxf5 exf5 26.h3 Kf7 27.Kh2 Rg8 28.Rag1 Rab8 29.Qc1 Qxc1
30.Rxc1 Rb6 31.Rcg1 Rgb8 32.Nxf5 gxf5 33.Rg7+ Ke6 34.Rxh7 Rb2+ 35.Kh1 Rb1 36.
h4 Rxg1+ 37.Kxg1 Rg8+ 38.Kf2 Kf6 39.Rh5 Rb8 40.Rg5 Rb2+ 41.Kg3 Rxa2 42.h5 Ra1
43.Kh2 Be2 44.h6 Rb1 {Bf3 wins} 45.h7 Rb8 46.Rg8 Rxg8 47.hxg8=Q Ke7 48.d5 Bh5
49.Qg5+ {Black Resigns} 1-0 [/pgn]

Joshua Acibar, in his first match for the club. played, as usual, at lightning speed but unfortunately also lost at lightning speed.

Niall won a protracted and fairly close game thanks to a superior pawn count.

Richard won, fortuitously I thought, in a close game when his opponent, playing too quickly, was obliged to continue a move having touched his piece, a rook. Richard was able to fork the King and Rook leaving him a bishop up.

Fernando lost a close game agin showing the advantage of a superior number of pawns.

Arnold, playuing against a much higher rated player fought for and got a draw in a position I thought was lost. Well done Arno;d.

Mike’s game I didn’t see much of and he lost graciously.

Well done Sedgemoor. 3½ v 2½

Kym, the Wellington Captain and I had tried to ensure a fairly evenly graded pairings, though as it turned out their No 1, Alex was considerably stronger than ours. To be fair Taunton’s top 3 players have not got an official ELO grading, so the placings were a bit arbitrary.

The results were as follows:

Alex Conway (Wellington) beat Richard Hailstone

John Jeremiah lost to Giannis Papaoikonomou

Robert Harris drew with Niall Homer

Ollie Sells lost to David Graham

Rupert Sells lost to Steve Smith

Eric Wall beat Nathanael Tretheway

Final result therefore was Wellington 2.5 – Taunton 3.5

I think most people enjoyed the ‘Over The Board’ experience, so we will be planning some more.

David Graham